EXCLUSIVE: Chas ’N’ Dave vow to rock on

They announced they were ­splitting in 2009 after Dave – real name David Peacock – tragically lost his wife.

But after reuniting, the Snooker Loopy singers have said they love ­touring too much to give up.

Dave, 69, said: “I had to have a year off when I lost my wife Sue. I needed to get my thoughts together. But after a year I couldn’t stay away.

“We both like playing too much to retire. Now we know it’ll never ­happen. We’ve been gigging all our lives. This means so much to us.”

He added: “We didn’t get into music to become famous. We got into it ­because we loved performing and we still love it. We can’t stop.”

“We’ve been ­together that long that we don’t argue”

David Peacock

Fans feared they had seen the last of them after Sue’s death but in 2011 Chas & Dave returned for a “final” tour. Then last year they went on the road again – almost 40 years after first forming. Chas, aka Charles Hodges, 70, said: “We always knew we’d be doing it for this long. We knew we’d be in it for life.”

Last year saw the pair release their first album in 18 years, with That’s What Happens becoming their ninth Top 40 album.

Dave said: “It feels like we’re back in a big way. And we’re loving it. We’ve got loads of gigs coming up this summer as well.

“We don’t feel like we’ve been away. And that’s what we like.

“We don’t really take any notice of what everyone else is doing. We haven’t got any competition so we don’t need to. We’re unique.”

Chas & Dave started in 1975 and went on to have a string of chart smashes throughout the 1980s.